“Hazel’s Theory of Evolution,” by Chicago-based author Lisa Jenn Bigelow, starts with a train.
Row crops all ploughed down
“Moon Lake” by Joe Lansdale tells the story of Daniel Russel, who returns to the town where, 10 years ago, his father tried to kill him when he was 13.
In the opening scene of Isabella Maldonado’s mystery, “The Cipher” an attacker thinks he’s found easy prey when he sees a woman running alone in an isolated corner of a Virginia park.
Crying in the wind
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'A library is not just about books. A library is part of the community, and it can be a place where people learn.'
After a soft opening week, The Literary, a bookstore serving wine and beer in the evening, and a second location for Hopscotch Bakery and Market held their grand opening on Wednesday.
There are many beautiful picture books being released that offer affirmations to young children as they make their way into the world. These two focus on diverse cultures, offering hopes and wishes that will resonate.
Conductor ends song
Remember the news about the 12 young soccer players trapped in the Tham Luang cave in Thailand in 2018? Rescue teams from all over the world arrived to find and remove the Thai kids and their young coach from deep within the Earth.
Harvest underway
School has begun and with it lots of learning! Here are two terrific new creative nonfiction picture books to help kids learn about anything from bridge building to volcanoes erupting. Engaging writing and creative approaches are sure to promote a love of learning.
It’s easy to overlook small publishers; they haven’t got the marketing resources to help their books leap out in front of readers. Today, I’m spotlighting a book from one of these small-but-mighty publishers, Fitzroy Books.
Writes Tom Kuipers: My wife and I are going to have a daughter and could not be more excited to welcome her to the world. With this in mind, I tried to find inspiration in my new role as a parent for the Champaign County Historical Archives’ contribution to this week’s “Inside Out” entry.
Two white butterflies
Renee Fehr has pondered writing a book about her sister's murder since shortly after Sheryl Houser was found dead in the garage of her rural Mansfield home in 1990. But getting justice for Sheryl took precedence instead for the next three decades.
Throwback Thursdays. Flashback Fridays. Way Back Wednesdays.
Germany, 1945. The war has ended. Concentration camps have been liberated, and Zofia Lederman, just released from Gross-Rosen death camp, is searching for her brother, Abek. She knows the rest of her family — parents, grandmother and aunt — were all sent to the gas chambers when they arrived…
Before you can say
“The Abduction of Pretty Penny,” by Leonard Goldberg, is the fifth book in “The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes” series. They are great reads and very entertaining.
There are a lot of things that come to mind when I think of the 1970s. Among them: tacky polyester clothing; avocado-green and harvest-gold furniture and appliances; blockbuster movies; and bizarre, only-in-the-’70s fads like pet rocks and streaking.
Hopefully, our young readers are enjoying the outdoors this summer. They don’t need to go far to find things to spur their sense of wonder. These two new picture books show young people’s encounters with nature, which bring about wonder in simple but profound ways!
I’ve spoken before
Rita Williams-Garcia’s “A Sitting in St. James” (HarperCollins/Quill Tree 2021) is set in Louisiana, 1860, before Southerners believed their way of life could actually be shattered by a civil war.
This book, “The Soul of Genius,” by Jeffrey Orens, looks at the first Solvay Conference on Physics held in 1911.
“Matchstick Castle,” by Keir Graff, is so whimsical it made me remember what it was like to be a young child and imagine the possibilities that lie behind mundane things.
The cicada buzz
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, surely an outfit is worth 1,001.
Pink and grey brush strokes
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